Pam Williams Prods. to adapt Josh Ravetch play

'One November Yankee' set for feature version

Pam Williams Prods. has acquired feature film rights to Josh Ravetch’s stage play “One November Yankee,” which is scheduled through Jan. 5 at the NoHo Arts Center.

Play stars Loretta Swit and Harry Hamlin as siblings who discover the wreckage of a single-engine plane years after it crashed. Story follows three sets of siblings as each interacts with the downed aircraft over time — from the crash itself to the discovery and an artist’s installation based on the event.

“We’ve often discussed the cinematic quality of the play, and we were thrilled when Pam Williams and her team saw the stage production and responded to the characters and themes of the sudden and unexpected twists and turns that life can take,” Ravetch said.

“I have been a fan of Josh’s work ever since he wrote a television pilot for Laura and I a few years back,” said Williams, who served as Laura Ziskin’s producing partner for the past 11 years. “When I saw Josh’s latest play, I knew this was the perfect project for us. It follows six characters all unexpectedly tied together though random events that is unlike anything I’ve seen before on the stage or screen. It will make a tremendous movie.”

Williams just wrapped principal photography on Lee Daniels’ “The Butler,” which the Weinstein Co. will distribute next fall. She started her career as a producer on “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” and is currently exec producing ABC’s “Malibu Country.” On the feature side, she’s developing Dave Stewart and Ringo Starr’s film “A Hole in the Fence” at Paramount and Stewart’s genre-bending musical “Zombie Broadway” with director Jonas Akerlund.

Ravetch is artistic director at the Stella Adler Conservatory West. His theater credits include “Wishful Drinking” with Carrie Fisher, “The Astronomer” with Shirley Jones and “Step in Time — A Musical Memoir” with Dick Van Dyke. Miramax is developing a feature adaptation of his play “Off Sides.”